


Running Stitch

by RocRolWriter



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26246071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RocRolWriter/pseuds/RocRolWriter
Summary: Inspired by and set in the "Metaphysical Determinism" series.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13





	1. First Stitch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SoDoRoses (FairyChess)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyChess/gifts).



Devin looked up at the bell—and nearly snorted at the potential customer who had just walked into Serpent Underneath. The slim young man was dressed entirely in white, down to his shoes; it was the kind of outfit that, if Remus were in the shop right now, he would never have been able to resist throwing a potful of the stickiest mulch at it just to see if it would stain. Though it did set off his dark hair and moderate tan, so, kudos to him for dressing in style at least. A little wagon rolled in behind him—by itself, so an enchanted item. 

Then the stranger looked at Devin with amazingly pale eyes—and besides a lifted eyebrow and barely-there quirk of his mouth, _didn’t react_ to the snake scales and mismatched eyes—and Devin revised his opinion. At least of the man’s age. He either had way too much Elf blood in his family tree or unlocked the secret to immortality, and either way he was far older than he looked. Those were the eyes of a man who had seen enough that the blatant remnants of a curse were hardly worth wasting a major reaction on. 

“Greetings, stranger,” Devin greeted calmly. “Can I help you?” 

The way his hand came up, he was fully prepared to tip a hat—though he wasn’t wearing a hat, so it was just a salute. “Red hibiscus flowers and St. John’s Wort today.” He tapped at his hip. “I’m prepared to buy up to…yes, ten bouquets of each, if you have the stock.” 

Both of Devin’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. Yes, he had hibiscus of many colors and St. John’s Wort—red hibiscus specifically could be used in love potions, and St. John’s Wort in antidepressants—but what could this man want with so many of both? “Right…” he looked over his inventory cheat sheet. “Cut or potted, Mr…?” 

“Kairen Monden. And, cut hibiscus is fine but potted for the St. John’s Wort.” 

“Let me verify the stock.” Devin went to the back. “Violet, how much St. John’s Wort do we have?” 

Violet poked their head around the corner. “Enough to keep the whole town happy for a week.” 

That was enough to spare ten bouquets. “How about the hibiscus—specifically the red ones?” 

“Is somebody making a love potion?” 

“He didn’t volunteer that information, and I didn’t ask.” 

Violet disappeared into the greenhouse again. “There’s a bazillion hibiscus back here,” they called back. 

“How many of them are red?” 

“Quite a few; how many’d he want?” 

“Up to ten bouquets.” 

“Yeah, there’s not that many. Maybe five?” 

Devin sighed. “Thank you, Violet.” He returned to the front. 

“I only _need_ the St. John’s Wort today; the hibiscus can wait,” Kairen reassured him, “I can come back later when I’m in more pressing need of Red Love.” 

Devin blinked. How good was this Kairen’s hearing? “Okay.” 

It took a few minutes to organize ten pots of St. John’s Wort and bring them out to the front, where Kairen had already moved his wagon next to the counter and made it rise up awaiting its load. 

“So, busy night of potion-making?” Devin asked casually as he and Violet carefully loaded the pots into the wagon. 

“In a sense. In another week I will be receiving a commission for a dozen plush toys in Red Cheer, and my stores are low.” 

Devin looked up. “…Alright, I’ll bite.” 

Kairen chuckled amiably. “Red Love and Red Cheer are both dyes, though I suppose calling them ‘coloring potions’ would still be accurate descriptions since they are infused with magic to bring out the other properties of the plants and minerals I use.” 

Violet stared blankly at the wagon—and the yellow flowers and green leaves of the St. John’s Wort. “And this makes a _red_ dye?” 

“It does indeed, and one that helps to battle depression symptoms in anyone who wears or holds something colored with it.” 

The transaction was completed in a few minutes. Kairen gave Devin a card for his shop and requested to be contacted when ten bouquets of red hibiscus were available, and then left with his wagon trundling after him. 

Devin shook his head. Ask him to summarize his perfect clairvoyant of Elvish descent, and he would describe Remus hands-down. This Kairen of—he glanced at the card—some shop called “The Stitch Witch” was just plain bizarre. 

He’d have to tell Remus about this guy though.


	2. Second Stitch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From Devin to Remus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to post this four days ago, but since last week was incredibly hot I just wasn't in the mood to even write. It's cooling off now so I should be able to provide more chapters, and hopefully I can finish before the month is up.

Devin was right. This “Kairen” sounded downright bizarre.

The first thing that came to Remus’s mind when he thought about a shop that sold plushies, was that it was the kind of place Patton would really like; a fluffy pastel palace. Free-associating with the shop’s name suggested a different locale though.

The Stitch Witch. A witch with stitches. Badass?

He’d thought flowers were pathetic too until Devin taught him that they could be metal as fuck.

And of course, when one of those Stitch Witches left a note at the tattoo parlor for Roman (which Remus opened the minute he saw of course, what are brothers if not nosy?) recommending he spend the entire next day with Patton, well, he _had_ to go visit them to find out what was up.

* * *

If Serpent Underneath was a jungle, The Stitch Witch was a massive slumber party waiting to happen. Pillows and blankets and stuffed animals were piled on tables so thoroughly that they looked like beds—and although you couldn’t assemble so many soft things into one place and _not_ get at least a modicum of “cute,” not all of the staged beds were pastel. In fact, many could have also been dioramas of different environments. The one right in front of the window put flowered blankets and mushroom pillows with plushies of butterflies, bees, ladybugs, and pixies (so a little girl’s fairyland), but there were also representations of a forest, a desert, an ocean, and a mountain. And there was a catalog by the counter, open on a picture of a snake-haired figure in a particularly elaborate hooded cloak…

“Where do you even stock your clothing at this sleepover?” Remus asked, turning towards the poor employee he’d startled when he barged through the door. It wasn’t Kairen, unless Kairen could change his appearance; the skin color could have been right, but this guy—girl? Enbee?—had green eyes and long brown hair that hung in ropes.

Kudos to them for their recovery, walking up to Remus and extending a hand. “Stitch Witch only produces wearables by commission.” As Remus accepted the handshake their professional smile stretched into something just a little more…crazy…and they added, “the more _personal_ a garment is, the more important it is that we get measurements so it fits _just_ right.” And dear Muses, a saucy wink—that felt more like a tease than a true flirt.

“Okay, what—dude…”

The hand he was still holding wiggled, making something jingle. Remus dropped his gaze down and felt a flicker of déjà vu, as there on the wrist—next to a flat blue bracelet with a genderfluid symbol on it, thank Apollo for the clarity—was a silver bracelet with a yellow Hecate’s wheel. He lifted the wrist higher.

_Ethan Iathrana. Bloodline curse. Automatic Thought Detection, Random Serpent Attributes._

This guy had snake features too? No wonder Kairen hadn’t blinked at Devin’s.

Oh yeah, Remus was here for something. “Did you or Kairen leave a note for my brother about his boyfriend?”

Ethan let go and tapped his chin. “Your brother…Roman? Is the same person who got together with that happy little kitchen witch at Apothe-café coupla weeks ago? I haven’t met him personally, but between what I picked up from Patton then and from you now, I have no doubt I’d recognize him on the street.”

“So that was you then?” At the answering nod he pressed, “Why is it _vital_ that Roman take his boyfriend on a day-long date tomorrow? What are _you_ doing tomorrow, that that would be important?”

“Tomorrow?” Ethan’s hands flew out in a wide shrug. “Absolutely nothing! Today we’re trading an alpaca for the silk of a phase spider though, and the spider’s coming in person to make the trade.”

Remus stared. “Just checking, did you basically say you were sacrificing a goat to a magic spider?”

The crazy grin was back. “Yup!”

“Can I watch?”

A door marked “Employees Only” swung open and a man with dark hair and pale eyes leaned out. “You can come to the back in a couple of minutes—unless you can promise you’ll be very quiet for about ninety seconds, in which case you can come right now.”

Ah, _this_ must be the mysterious Kairen. “Are those ninety seconds the best part?”

Kairen cocked an eyebrow at Ethan, seeming to invite an answer.

Ethan shrugged again. “If you consider a giant spider bamfing in from nowhere ‘the best part,’ then yeah!”

“I can be quiet.” Ninety seconds couldn’t be that hard.

Kairen nudged the door open wider and stepped back, and Ethan half-escorted Remus to the door.

Well, there was the alpaca, fidgeting nervously in a big pen next to a young man with a…musical instrument that looked like a very simple lyre. Kairen waved Remus to stand next to another man, one who had been examining the room with a tablet and now was arming up with a staff.

“You realize how difficult it is to have it both ways, don’t you?” he complained as Kairen walked to the other side of the pen. “If the protections are too tight the phase spider won’t even hear the summons, never mind being able to get in, but if they’re too loose the shockwaves will escape into the general Weave again.”

“We’ve already sent messages to all the people we’ve located who would be affected by a Weave ripple, just in case, so as long as the spider can get in everything will be fine,” Kairen told him with a sigh. “Now quiet down and get ready, it’s summoning time.”

Remus cocked an eyebrow at the guy’s staff—and the ring on his finger, decorated with what appeared to be a little jade brain. “Nice ring; when’s the date?”

“Date? What are you—what? I-it’s not-urm…” he stammered off into incoherency followed quickly by silence, his face turning a spectacular shade of crimson as Ethan snickered.

The guy with the lyre bobbled slightly as he suppressed his own laughter and started strumming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The guy with the tablet, staff, and ring is my version of a Logical Side, and the guy with the lyre is my version of a Passionate Side. Since their names in my personal canon are just Logan and Patton right now though, I would need to find them different MD names before I introduce them. We'll see what happens.


	3. Third Stitch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From Remus to Roman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where I fully lay out what I'd been hinting at a chapter ago: my explanation for Patton's Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very-Bad Day.

“…And then the phase spider appeared! It was blue and white and like, the size of a horse! Took down the alpaca in no time flat! Then the little musician _walked right up to it_ and petted its fangs!”

Remus hadn’t been able to shut up about the “ritual” performed at The Stitch Witch since he’d gotten home. Not that Roman minded…exactly…because it did provide the explanation for Patton’s terrible day a few weeks ago. After he texted Logan asking about the spellcaster’s definition of a Weave.

“Weave” was evidently the general name for the ambient magic that humanoids could use, as opposed to the raw stuff that was too wild. Nearly every spell involved manipulating the Weave, whether the caster was aware that that was what was happening or not—tugging and binding “strands” of it into the shape they wanted to achieve a desired effect—and messing with some strands would have an effect on others, which allowed certain sensitives to notice when spells were being cast nearby. The bigger the spell, the more strands would be pulled out of resting state and the more _other_ strands would get shaken up, and the lower a sensitivity would be needed to notice the ripples.

Patton wasn’t sensitive enough to consciously notice the effect of a large creature popping into existence from the Ethereal Plane…in general. However he did have arachnophobia, so the fact that the _particular_ creature was a _giant spider_ probably came through loud and clear on a primal level, which then caused him to instinctively try and defend himself from the unseen threat. Which might have worked, Roman would bet that on that day there wasn’t a single ordinary spider in sight anywhere between where Patton lived and where he worked, but left voids in his defenses for negative energy to get through in other ways.

In other words, Patton accidentally jinxed himself because he felt threatened by a phase spider.

A phase spider that these Stitch Witches apparently summoned without sufficiently protecting the rest of the Weave from the ripples that would result.

“And after the kid’s legs were totally cocooned in silk…”

“If this Kairen is clairvoyant, why didn’t he check to make sure they wouldn’t hurt anybody by using fewer protections?” Roman interrupted Remus’s tale.

“What? I don’t know, maybe he doesn’t have any more control over it than we do.” Remus blinked. “Oh…I didn’t even think of that. Well I was already over there once and Patty’s your boyfriend, you go ask.”

“Maybe I will.” But not tomorrow. Until he was _sure_ that the phase spider’s ripples hadn’t had a negative effect on Patton this time around, he wasn’t bringing his boyfriend anywhere near to where it had been summoned.

* * *

Two days later Roman walked into The Stitch Witch. He studied the plush dioramas with admiration—Patton would _love_ it in here—and finally looked for Kairen.

And found him instantly. At least, the white-dressed fellow playing with a rack of scarves and watching him with that _knowing_ look was probably Kairen. Clairvoyant or not, with how conspicuously he was placed, it was clear that he was expecting Roman.

“Hello.”

“Hello.” Roman walked over. “I have questions. Magic-related.”

“I have answers.” Kairen gestured at the doorway behind him, which was covered by a curtain rather than a door. “This is the measuring room, and it’ll be a few hours before someone comes wanting to commission a wearable; we can talk in here. And yes, I’m on break—we have fifteen minutes.”

Roman eyed Kairen as he stepped past him into the measuring room and leaned against the table. “I guess the first question is, clairvoyant or not, why would you work a ritual without setting up protections to keep ripples from escaping into the surrounding area?”

Kairen sat on the stool. “Did your brother not mention that part? It’s because getting those protections just right is finicky, and it doesn’t always matter. At our previous place of business there wasn’t anyone afraid of spiders—or if there was, they were already protected behind so many wards that a phase spider dropping in wouldn’t have any effect on them—so most of the time we didn’t bother; and we wanted to be sure we needed the protections here before putting them up.”

Roman clenched his teeth slightly but nodded to concede the point. After all, who would want to waste a lot of time and effort setting up protections if they were unnecessary?

Except in this case they were necessary.

“Next question. _Are_ you clairvoyant?”

Kairen smiled gently. “In a rather unusual sense. I see the future as I would live it, not as an omniscient being: one path at a time rather than all paths at once. I cannot ask of it ‘what distant folk will be affected by this course of action’ and expect to be taken instantly to that person or those people—I must seek them out in person, so to speak.” His smile turned to a slight grimace. “Really, my version of clairvoyance is more useful for navigation and negotiation than for…city-sized chess games.”

Roman tried to imagine how that would work. If _his_ clairvoyance worked like that, and he was about to do something that might affect other people… “Exhausting?”

“Very.”

…Then he would call or text all friends and family in the area to make sure they at least knew he was about to _maybe_ inconvenience them, just to cut down on how much metaphorical walking he would be doing; maybe have them contact people _they_ knew in the area for the same purpose, but also maybe not because those people might contact their friends and too-long games of Telephone could be just as much trouble. Once he’d covered his bases as thoroughly as he could without clairvoyance, _then_ he would start “looking” for people he was only acquainted with and see if they would be bothered. Followed by strangers.

In a local population of at least a hundred thousand, probably more.

Yeah, no way in Hades could he possibly check on everyone; he’d stay mostly local to conserve his energy and hope for the best.

Roman couldn’t find it in him to even be angry at this guy anymore.


End file.
